A new prison outside San José

Costa Rica's President Laura Fernández inaugurated the High-Containment Centre Against Organized Crime (CACCO) on Wednesday, 14 October 2026. The facility is part of the La Reforma prison complex in San Rafael de Alajuela, about 20 km northwest of the capital, San José, and is designed to hold 5,100 inmates at a cost of $35 million. Le Temps reported that inmates will get one hour outdoors each day, wear orange uniforms and be subject to a strict visiting regime. Salvadoran security and defence ministers attended the inauguration, according to the same report.

Justice Minister Gabriel Aguilar said the facility will help the government regain control of the prison system and reduce infiltration by organized crime. The first transfers are scheduled for late October 2026.

“The CACCO will force criminals to face a new model - a tough-on-crime model. Costa Rica will become a global benchmark for prison security.”

Fernández, who took office on 8 May 2026, is due to travel to El Salvador on Friday, 16 October, to visit the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) that inspired the new prison.

Homicides and the cartel route

Costa Rica, long spared the levels of violence seen in its neighbours, recorded 905 homicides in 2023, 876 in 2024 and 873 in 2025, according to Al Jazeera. NOS reported that more than 640 killings had already been recorded in 2026 by 14 October, and that more than 70 percent of them were linked to drug conflicts.

Over the past decade the country became a transit route for cocaine from South America. The U.S. State Department said in a 2025 report that a cargo terminal at the Caribbean port of Limón had become a storage and transshipment point for cocaine bound for Europe, and that it had also detected fentanyl distribution. Brookings Institution researcher Vanda Felbab-Brown said the Sinaloa and Jalisco Mexican cartels, the Colombian Clan del Golfo, Venezuela's Tren de Aragua and Italian mafias are all present, alongside a growing number of local groups. She argued that rivalry between the Mexican cartels pushed local proxies into fighting one another, which drove homicides up.

2023905

2024876

2025873

2023

905 homicides

2024

876 homicides

2025

873 homicides

Data from the article text

The Bukele model spreads across the region

Nayib Bukele's El Salvador has operated under a state of exception since 2022. The Independent reports that it has imprisoned more than 91,000 people, while Le Temps puts the figure at 93,000 over four years. Le Temps also cites a Salvadoran NGO, Socorro Juridico, which says a third of those detained are innocent and more than 500 have died in custody. A UN group of experts has said the Salvadoran model amounted to crimes against humanity, according to the same report.

The model is spreading. Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, inaugurated in July, has announced plans to tour CECOT, which can hold about 40,000 people, with a view to a similar facility at home. Colombia's Abelardo de la Espriella campaigned on a pledge to build 10 mega-prisons and took office in August. In Brazil, right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro reached the final round of the presidential vote with a platform that includes five mega-prisons.

Rights concerns

Opponents argue that Costa Rica, internationally known for respecting human rights, is copying a model that has drawn serious criticism. NOS reported that Costa Rican supervisors warn of a risk of rights violations because the prison lacks independent oversight. Benjamin Lessing, an associate professor at the University of Chicago who studies Latin American prisons, warned that politicians could use the popularity of hardline policies to consolidate power, suspend civil rights and weaken democracy.